On the anti-racist programme of Day Zero at the Sziget the British Embassy, together with Rock Against Racism (RAR), Love Music Hate Racism (LMHR), with the organizers of the Festival and with several Hungarian and international bands will send out the message of co-operation and variegation to thousands of people. We spoke with Greg Dorey British Ambassador about the event, but we also asked him about his opinion of Hungary and we managed to get the list of his favourite Hungarian bands, too.

How did the four organizers get together to address this important matter? What are the main goals of the campaign?

Greg Dorey: We, the British Embassy actually brought them together having worked with Sziget Festival before and knowing about the good work that originally RAR and later LMHR done in the UK where the ideas work very well. We met just a few weeks ago and a lot has been achieved already but basically what we want to try to do is to use the power and the popularity of music to encourage people to stand up against racism.

In the UK how serious problem is racism? How effective is the campaign in your homeland?

GD: I think racism probably exists in pretty much every country in the world to a different extent including in the UK, but through better education and better communication in Britain we've actually managed to make the problem less acute. The thing is with racism that it is not a problem that you can just solve and then walk away from and that's the end of it. It's something which can resurface from time to time. I think this causes a particular danger in Europe.

What are the expectations of Day Zero? What kind of results would the Embassy like to see on the Sziget Festival?

GD: We want a lively, an eye-catching day at Sziget that everybody will enjoy. People come along down here for great music but we also want them to take away the message that racism is not appropriate in a modern society. So that's mostly what we want to come out of Day Zero but that's just the start. We have engaged Hungarian non-governmental organisations to take forward what we are trying to do to continue to approach the anti-racist message. So hopefully this will just be the start and as long as there is a problem, they will continue to the events at which Hungarian musicians stand up and take an attitude against racism.

So the Embassy is trying to run the campaign on a sustainable basis with other organisations. Who have applied to join the campaign besides Sziget?

GD: Well we employed Szubjektív Értékek Alapítvány to be our national co-ordinator and there were number of groups that applied for the job. We had a competition, all of them were very good but we picked Szubjektív to take this forward and they are going to work with Hungarian musicians, bands and individuals, with music producers and with other parts of civil society as well, with schools or other organisations that want to get involved, that's great. There is a website being set up: www.zare.hu, lot of the information is on there and in due course Szubjektiv will be running this website, so this is where to go for the information.

What is your personal opinion about our country? Are we more helpful, tolerant or just the opposite; are we more remote, discriminative than other nations? What have you experienced?

GD: Well I obviously like Hungarians or I wouldn't have come back to serve in Hungary for the second time, I mean I've been here originally at the end of the eighties. I don't actually believe in national stereotypes, but clearly there are differences between countries sometimes depending on the different way they've evolved. If you compare Hungary and the UK; you had different economic developments here, different patterns of emigration etc. that conditions the local attitude. My impression is that in Hungary there has been maybe less of an active and open debate about racism that perhaps we had in the UK. One of the points of this initiative is to stimulate a debate and get people talk about it and addressing difficulties. I do sometimes in Hungary hear Hungarians who are otherwise friendly, nice, well-educated people come out with statements which I find very strange about racial issues coming as I do from the UK, so we obviously want to address those people, engage them and get them to think about the question of racism.

Why did the British Embassy feel that there is a need to support such a project particularly in Hungary?

GD: For a number of reasons but we've seen musical campaigns against racism worked very well in the UK and here in Hungary we've got the opportunity, we've got this fantastic open-air festival, Sziget Festival, I think the biggest in Europe, well I'm sure it's the biggest in Europe, possibly one of the biggest in the world. You have people coming in from around the region, from many other countries so it's actually a great launch pad for an initiative and also we were very keen to do this, we were able to get some campaign money from the UK to do it and I and a lot of my colleagues believe that music is a really good means of communication we can use for the message of anti-racism.

Music really connects people. What is your connection with music?

GD: I'm a consumer rather than a producer. I have got a couple of guitars but I only play for my own interest. I have to say I've got quite wide tastes in Europe, but the moment I do like rock music. One of my favourite bands, Snow Patrol is coming to Sziget this week. I like a number of Hungarian rock bands, actually my taste is a little bit traditional because I tend to like the groups that were on last time I was here (in Hungary in 20 years ago) like LGT, Kispál és a Borz and Republic. I don't know the new groups as well but yeah, I like music very much.

Returning to our main subject which is racism; what do you think who are suffering from discrimination the most in our country?

GD: I think pretty clearly at the moment the Roma community is suffering the most directly but I do hear antisemitic comments made from time to time or you look around at graffiti in the city or you listen to the chants of football crowds and you hear very unpleasant things said either anti-roma or anti-jewish sentiments. I think I am aware of the number of cases where people with how should I say with non-white skins have suffered discrimination and harassment here. Hungary is not unique, these things happen in other countries as well including in the UK and we would like to work with Hungarian partners to try to do something about this. We are common members of the European Union and the United Nations so we've all agreed to respect peoples' human rights and fundamental freedoms and we have to address the problem of racism.

Can we say that the attacks against the Roma community triggered the launch of the campaign?

GD: That's part of the overall picture I think even without those attacks that you mention I think there would have been a problem that we should be trying to do something about. But clearly the attacks are very worrying and evil. There has been a quite a lot of publicity on this particular issue and that's the context in which we now are working to launch the campaign.

The Slovakian-Hungarian conflict is a regular topic in Hungary. Do you think that the tensions could be eased and how is it possible in your opinion?

GD: I do not want to exeggarate this, I honestly think the word "conflict" suggests that there's more to it and perhaps there is. It's clearly something to be worried about but I do see the underneath these kind of high-level political firework and shouting at each other there's a lot of people at both sides of the border who are just getting on with their life, there are a lot of economical interchange, people are travelling back and forth all the time and I kind of feel that in the heart of the problem is communication. If people could speak appropriately and open to each other most of these difficulties could be resolved. And maybe music has a part playing in this, music has a great form of communication, who knows? ZARE organized a concert on the 3^rd of August at Zöld Pardon where both you and Károly Gerendai from the Sziget started painting the ZARE-wall.

What does the wall symbolizes?

GD: I think it was partly good about this that people weren't painting whole figures, they were contributing little bits. I started painting a figure and other people continued and finished it. And I think what's good about it, it's an example of cooperation, people working together and solving a problem which is colouring the picture. I think that model of cooperation is brought by this initiative working together with the Sziget Festival, with Love Music Hate Racism, with Szubjektív Értékek Alapítvány and with any other partners who are well-motivated and want to join in.

The ZARE-wall will be brought to the Sziget for further painting and to send out a message to everyone to join the campaign. What message would you send now via sziget.hu to persuade people to join?

GD: My message would be; come along on Zero Day, because there will be some great music, we will have a really good time there, take away the anti-racist message and if you can't come on Zero Day that's not the end of the story because there are other ways in which you can get involved. If you're on Sziget later in the week come to the British Embassy tent where we have lots of exciting activities, quizzes, movies and other things going on. But in any case do join us in putting around the anti-racism message cause I think together we can actually achieve something.

Ági Deák